| This project examines vernacular, soldier-produced and official, military-produced videos posted on YouTube during the War in Iraq. The purpose of this project is three fold: (a) to explore vernacular memorializing and argumentation on YouTube as an alternative to government and mainstream media hegemony, (b) to interrogate the official counter images crafted in response, and (c) to chart the emerging spaces for public deliberation fostered by the growth of new media technologies. The persuasive impact of these texts is investigated through a combination of critical rhetoric, which calls upon rhetoricians to consider the ideological implications of their artifact and visual rhetoric, which foregrounds the influence of visual images in public culture.;The videos crafted and circulated by soldiers display vernacular cultural syncretism, insofar as the productions critique military purpose and policy, while leaving unaddressed the underlying issue of U.S. military imperialism. The vernacular videos contain articulations that are problematic when originating at an authentic and authoritative source. At the same time, the Mufti-National Forces in Iraq videos created by the military in response to the popularity of soldier creations serve as a dangerous hybridized media product. The military discursively positions itself as marginalized against the mainstream media as institutional. Finally, the vernacular and official videos engender public deliberation. To support this claim, a qualitative media analysis of viewer commentary is conducted in order to trace and explicate the emerging themes and arguments occurring in this digital deliberative arena.;Ultimately, this project advances a revised, rhizome-based model of media framing that allows for increased contestation. The project also offers an extended notion of public screens. New screens produce a mobility and interactivity that make the screen more than a tool for display like the television screens of current theoretical definitions. In addition to a display capability, new digital screens actually create and foster a forum for the dialectical exchange of dialogue, images, videos, and ideas that might otherwise be excluded from public debate. |
